With the arrival of Peak Oil, the curtain has closed on Act 1 of the drama Petroleum Man. What will happen in Act 2? Chekhov said, "If there's a gun on the wall at the beginning of the play, by the end it must go off." In the world's nuclear arsenal are many guns on the wall. If life copies art, will there be an Act 3 in which the players, having learned their lesson the hard way, live sustainably? To explore these and other questions... FTW's Act 2 Blog. Read, comment, take heart! Orkin

9 comments:

Today is a huge day for tipping point evidence.. I would like to say that Oklahoma is on fire because God punished them for electing Inholf. Well, I wish the liberals would say that to the repugs. Will they admit climate change now?

Mexico City just cut off water to a million people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/7993279.stm

the die of iss coming 2012 seems about right to me. wooo hooo,

Old friends call me Ted Kazinsky. I say, well, if I was, I would at least have the foresight to allow nature to do the dirty work for me. lol. This world is insane. My friends deny me my research.

They deny the piracy is related to the nuclear contamination. They are imperial thinking and its going to get them nowhere.

The toughest challenge I have is not trying to send my messages to old friends who are waiting for the next toxic asset to invest in. The toughest challenge I have is trying to convince everyone in the green movement there is no time for retrofitting only time to eco nest and wait out the storm.

Nature is coming with a natural selection process. We would need 22 billion people to = fossilized sunlights horse power for this industrial age. You tell me how torertofit that? Who here thinks the market pace will dictate things for you?

You better start swaling. Thats what you have to do. Building coppice swales for bio char for your sustainable soils.

I don't know how much of this willgo through, there were picturesattached.It's just another example of Amae,Life looking out for itself, the dependence we all share, no matter what we look like. Will you (I)be able to accept/share with, something, which would normallykill us, or we should enjoy eating? I look forward to astrange AND Exciting Future.

In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned.... It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a greyhound female, to the nearby Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need.

Geoff Grewcock and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims: to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.

They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.

The dog had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but Jasmine started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn't matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, probably, a rhinoceros, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Geoff Grewcock relates one of the early incidents. "We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman cross. They were tiny when they arrived at the centre and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them."

"But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits. She takes all the stress out of them and it helps them to not only feel close to her but to settle into their new surroundings.

"She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and guinea pigs and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose."

Jasmine, the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary's resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born. The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and 15 rabbits..

And one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, 11 weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster mum role. Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the roe deer with affection and makes sure nothing is matted in her fur.

"They are inseparable," says Geoff Grewcock. "Bramble walks between her legs and they keep kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary.. It's a real treat to see them."

Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of abuse.

How does your garden grow? For years we've been following reports of Chemtrails; Government planes spraying chemicals all over America.

And now? The Obama Administration has held discussions regarding the possibility of “geo-engineering” the earth’s climate to counter global warming by “shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays”

Last year, a KSLA news investigation found that a substance that fell to earth from a high altitude chemtrail contained high levels of Barium (6.8 ppm) and Lead (8.2 ppm) as well as trace amounts of other chemicals including arsenic, chromium, cadmium, selenium and silver. Of these, all but one are metals, some are toxic while several are rarely or never found in nature. The newscast focuses on Barium, which its research shows is a “hallmark of chemtrails.” KSLA found Barium levels in its samples at 6.8 ppm or “more than six times the toxic level set by the EPA.”KSLA also asked Mark Ryan, Director of the Poison Control Center, about the effects of Barium on the human body. Ryan commented that “short term exposure can lead to anything from stomach to chest pains and that long term exposure causes blood pressure problems.” The Poison Control Center further reported that long-term exposure, as with any harmful substance, would contribute to weakening the immune system, which many speculate is the purpose of such man-made chemical trails. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okB-489l6MI&feature=player_embedded

Barium oxide has cropped up repeatedly as a contaminant from suspected geoengineering experimentation.KSLA also put aerosolized-chemical testing in its historical context, citing a voluminous number of unclassified tests exposed in 1977 Senate hearings. The tests included experimenting with biochemical compounds on the public. KSLA reports that “239 populated areas were contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969.”

The announcement this week that the Obama administration has held these discussions on the possibility of “geo-engineering” the earth’s climate to counter global warming by “shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays” has stoke fresh concerns that similar programs are already underway, and that chemtrails are directly connected to such experimentation.

I was wondering recently how the people who are in control would find a way to censor or shut down the Internet on us, as let's face it most of us have learned so much through the Internet and we now have an entirely new perspective on reality because of this. Then I began thinking of all that immediately began happening here in the USA after 9/11...how we gave complete control to the government to do whatever it wanted to "for our own best interests" including signing the "Patriot Act" into law.

So I began thinking...

An attack on U.S. soil...

The discovery that it was all planned and executed by terrorists through the Internet...

Knowing that several more attacks are already planned and the only way to stop them is to shut down the Internet completely to cutoff all their communications and save us all from total destruction...

After another new terrorist attack I think America would pretty much buy into that one very easily.

And now in addition, this new law has just been proposed in Congress...

What Lawrence Korb does not quantify is the incredible amount of money that would be siphoned, from people who teach school and pour coffee and file insurance papers, to people who sell munitions and related war materials. And time is money.

Article highlights include these:

‘Later, Korb indicated that ten years may not even be long enough. He said, “Within ten years it should be okay if you do everything right. But there’s no guarantee.”’

‘Korb went on to say (possibly still in presidential ventriloquist mode), “You’re gonna have to have at least 100,000 troops… and what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna put the troops in the areas to protect the population [inaud] where the Taliban is. That’s gonna be more casualities, okay? And you’re gonna have to do that, and it’s gonna be expensive.”’

I’ve cited a report before, by Center for American Progress (November, 2007), but would like to again draw attention to some of the text, co-authored by Lawrence Korb (the CFR expert cited above).

P. 46 “FATA has been a chronically ungoverned space,and extremism has flourished there. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are concentrated in this area.

p. 47 “Few economic opportunities exist in this region, there is no banking system...”

p. 52 “The United States should steer military aid away from conventional military expenditures such as advanced combat aircraft, which is geared toward a possible confrontation with India, and toward counterterrorism assistance. Benefits for Pakistan must be paired with firm demands that Pakistan support the United States by cracking down on militants and Al Qaeda and making democratic reforms.”

And this is becoming U.S. policy in the region. On March 12 the New York Times reported on Obama’s request for $1.5 billion in NON-military aid. But on March 30, this plan was announced for $2.8 billion in military aid to Pakistan.

‘A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told FOX News the money will be dedicated exclusively to "equipping, training, and building infrastructure directly related to counterinsurgency operations."

‘…Officials were quick to point out that U.S. commanders would have control over how the money is spent, and that none of it would be spent in a way that would give Pakistan a greater capacity to attack another country, such as India.’

‘In his speech on Friday, President Obama described Pakistan's lawless border region as "the most dangerous place in the world."’

‘“We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention. The Taliban is resurgent and al-Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border,” he said. “With that reality as my focus, today I send to the Congress a supplemental appropriations request totaling US$83.4 billion that will fund our ongoing military, diplomatic and intelligence operations.”'

In fact, the budget request includes a few hundred million for the Mexican border, UN operations in Congo and humanitarian aid in Gaza and Georgia, and a good deal of it is also for the Iraq War, which Obama promised to end. But significantly, $400 million is earmarked “to help Pakistan battle extremists”.

Folks, this is the last hope for the permanent military economy of American capitalism, begun with NSC 68 in 1950, warned about by Eisenhower in 1961, vigorously defended by Team B in 1975, and an obvious main cause of the Iraq War. The new Gates Defense budget represents a drastic reduction in military pork. But I believe this request for war spending is outside of that budget, and is designed to make up some of the shortfall.

Wall Street not only needs an influx of cash from the heroin trade (which incidentally helps pacify the cities of Europe) but MUST have its military-industrial fix, a regular infusion of cash into the major contractors who make war happen – including not only Raytheon but General Foods, Ford Motor Company, and Nike (which is working on cloaks of invisibility for DARPA, I kid you not). Except for war, the United States does not employ people to do much more than pour coffee for each other and file papers. Homebuilding has maxed out, after all, and IT has moved to India.

Apparently all they can think of to do, to keep The Economy going, is to pour deficit spending into the mountains of Afghanistan. I really think THEY think that the economy will not survive another year without this massive tax-and-spend militarism. Apparently building a decent railroad system, rebuilding city centers and funding education would not do it.

So the next antiwar movement is likely to be excoriated as unpatriotic, not only because “it sanctions terrorism”, but because it threatens the jobs of American citizens. I think this answers the question of who THEM are: folks with little interesting in rebuilding America, and much invested in the war business. To me, this suggests that America is scheduled not only for very painful “demand destruction” but for a tragic, post-imperial status as the chumps responsible for ever more trillions in debt, struggling along in a broken land. The chance of an unemployed America paying off the existing national debt may be zero, but the hefty interest payments should suffice to shear the population of anything and everything it might earn in the future.

Given the vast momentum behind this program, I ask (and not rhetorically): What sort of peace program might turn the misguided Ship of State away from a looming iceberg called Pakistan?

It is the bain of my existance that almost everything i see or learn can be interpreted or employed in more than one way.

Yes indeed, The Cybersecurity Act could be used to shut off the Internet and this could cause difficulties in our getting very valuable news about world events.

On the other hand, I spend my work days warding off Internet hackers who have far more time, tools, resources, and knowledge than I do. I have developed plans to block my network from China and most of the Asian Internet in event of a massive cyber attack. The threat is real and the harm that can be done is massive. The U.S is very poorly defended from an IT infrastrucure standpoint. This is so for the very same reason this country is in such poor shape in all other areas. Extremely short sighted management and outsourcing of U.S. jobs and technology.

How will the financial sector run if Obama shuts down the Internet? Much of the financial sectors IT work is handled in India, Ireland, or other countries. Even the federal government and many state governments rely on tech support from around the globe just to function. With Cell phones and GPS and all the other interwoven components now involved in the daily use of the Internet, shutting any one part down will cause massive pain everywhere. An Internet shutdown is not in the cards until things are REALLY bad in your home country.

That said, you can expect to see a continued shrinking of available news and information on the Internet as more Internet companies fall victim to the economic collapse. Censorship will be or already is a growing problem too.

Back to the threat issue. Many of the computer systems that run our water and electrical systems are connected to the public internet in some way. These systems have already been found to have been hacked but not yet exploited. Virtual time bombs waiting to explode when the time is right. I recently read an article about Great Britain buying Chinese made network gear in 2005 in order to save money. Now they find that that network gear is full of back door programs that leave critical communications equipment vulnerable to attack.

Sadly, the plight of IT and the Internet is not much different from that of the financial sector or the food and Ag sectors or any other sector of society. Greed negligence and waste have left things so entangled that any solution or move to pull away will cause massive pain.

On the other hand, perhaps the loss of the Internet might get us talking to our neighbors again? I'd be talking to mine if he would just turn off his damn gas powered leaf blower. :-)

Businessman is right to be worried, but this should remind all of us that we will be doing without things more and more. Download, copy, and save as much information as you can on the things you will need to know. Build a library on your PC of farming, permaculture, water purification, etc etc. And BURN THAT INFO TO CDs, DVD etc. Collect, store and reuse knowledge. It will not always be out there for you to get to. Use it now and save save save.